INTERN DUNN – If you'll direct your attention to our "In the Year 2000" Flickr pool, you can observe this lovely EPCOT painting in its natural habitat. Consider the rays of light as they guide your eyes from the majestic central globe to the happy, multicultural crowd experiencing The Future.

Once you've done so, be sure to browse through the many new photos at our "Electro Selectro" and "Boing Boing Gadgets Stock Images Flickr pools. Get in on the action by posting your own, too! It's fun and will help you live longer.

Core77 has a great collection of collections of vintage microphones. Shiny!

True industrial design: vintage mic's [Core77.com]

Today on Modern Mechanix we learn all about video games in this Popular Electronics round-up called "New 1978 Electronic Games" which features the Atari 2600, Coleco's Telstar Arcade, the Magnavox Odyssey, and many others you've probably never heard of. Reading the technical breakdowns of the platforms I couldn't help but think that any of these machines would get clocked by a Wii... remote. We looked at the origins of in-flight refueling, a child's mono-wheel racer that looks like it comes from the Victorian era, yet strongly resembles this device that Joel posted last week, a very modern looking TV camera used during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and a test to see if your child has any musical ability that would make it worth spending the money to send them to piano lessons. We also learned how to send music over a beam of light, and how to turn the back seat of your car into a comfortable bed.

Blake Royer bought a plastic mandoline with a ceramic blade made by Kyocera for just $25 and found it just as good as more expensive steel models.

Never mind that a cell phone company makes it; this thing works. And it makes me look like a fast, skilled cook, especially with winter salad recipes like this one. Making the dressing, which involves dumping everything into a jar and shaking like mad, is the labor-intensive part. Otherwise, I just lazily slide my vegetables over the mandoline's ceramic blade, resulting in beautiful, paper-thin, uniform slices. I toss, serve, and accept the compliments.

Dinner Tonight: Fennel, Arugula and Green Apple Salad [Serious Eats]

Phone Scoop has a moderately technical overview of the spectrum sold in the 700 MHz auction held by the FCC. If, like me, you are getting a kick out of trying to understand how the wireless industry will expand over the next few years, it's a very digestible bit of explanation.

First, the FCC offered the Upper C block in just a handful of very large regions: six licenses cover the entire continental US. Verizon snagged all six, plus Hawaii.

Second, the Upper C block is a full 22 MHz wide, compared to 12 MHz for the other major blocks. That extra bandwidth means extra capacity, for handling more voice calls and/or more data.

A Visual Guide to 700 MHz [PhoneScoop.com]

• Music Keyboard – Yamaha YPT310AD Portable Keyboard with Adapter for $100, shipped. [Amazon]

• MS Office – Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for PC for $60 (download version) if you have an .edu email address. [Dealnews]

• Woot-Off – The Woot!-Off is still going on.

Over at Modern Mechanix we've been wondering where on earth one would drive this gargantuan resort bus. Today we posted the editor's introduction to the first issue of Modern Mechanix as well as a retrospective from their 40th anniversary issue called "40 Years Ago". We also looked at a set of rubber golf clubs, a jet powered car, a "memory machine" that seems to just be a one row, one column database, and a 1946 Popular Mechanics piece titled "Industry Cooks with Electrons".

If you'd like to join other Happy Mutants on an ancient, non-web-based protocol, we have registered a new channel on Freenode in which to discuss, you know, stuff. Standard rules apply: If you're unruly or rude, don't stop by! Otherwise, I look forward to wasting far too much time chatting to you all in one big yappy forum.

If you've never used IRC before, you'll need a client. On Windows I've used mIRC, on OS X or Linux I prefer X-Chat Aqua (although many like Colloquy on OS X). Connect to any of the Freenode servers and join the channel #boingboing for maximum chat.

Intel senior research fellow Kevin Kahn, in an interview with Epicenter, points out that there are already is a group using White Space television frequencies to broadcast data—the very same wireless microphones that manufacturers are claiming will be disrupted by the technology.

While Kahn admits that the low power, mobile white space proposition -- the one that would allow these various unlicensed devices to intermittently jump in and out of bands depending on how heavily they are being used -- is a bit more complicated, he does point out that, in a way, there's already been a small case study.
"Today, this space is actually heavily used with wireless mics and nobody seems to notice," he says. "Not the TV people, no one. If you look at wireless mics that people like Shure make (Shure is one of the companies lobbying against opening this space up), they actually operate on these TV channels, the ones that are only supposed to be run by people in studios. Well, nobody seems to notice when these things are turned on so I don't see how you can argue there's going to be this massive interference problem."

Intel Fellow Calls BS on White Space 'Interference' Claims [Epicenter]

Reuters has a nice profile piece on Ben Heckendorn, modder extraordinaire, who has turned his love of converting videogame systems into new creations into a healthy cottage business:

"Often someone will ask me to combine five different video game systems in one box, which is of course ridiculous. One guy wanted me to build an Xbox 360 controller attached to his rowing machine at home so he could row and play 'Uno' with his friends online. It sounded so weird I did it."

"Modder" turns hobby into career [Reuters]

This wonderful piece from Mr. Jones Watches is called "The Accurate," as each its hour and minute hands spell out a memento mori over its mirrored face. It's only $150. I think I'll buy it—life is short.

Product Page [Watchismo.com]

Tor Clausen makes these fantastic Musical Rumba Series tables in his Olympia, Washington studio, each one topped with interchangeable percussion instruments that lock into a flat grid. Prices start at $800 for a 2-by-2 configuration, but I say go for the gusto and get the 4-by-4 model for $2,900. If I were the sort of person who had friends over to play music and sing songs I'd order one in a heartbeat.

Product Page [MusicalFurnishings.com via Oh Gizmo via Cribcandy]

The Orbita Tourbillon is a watch winding machine, for those too busy to keep a watch wound on their own. I thought it was a joke but it is apparently a very real thousand-dollar product—three grand if you get the triple-barreled version.

Watch Report has one:

In addition to keeping your watches wound, the Orbita Tourbillon will also to rotate them in such a way as to offset the negative effects of gravity. Just as the tourbillon complication is designed to rotate a watch's escapement in order to counteract the forces of gravity and keep the movement functioning more regularly, with every turn, the Orbita Tourbillon positions your watches at a 30° offset from the previous turn. In other words, rather than rotating 360°, the barrel is rotated 390° which means that every 12 turns, the watch has had the opportunity to rest at a slightly different angle, averaging out the tiny variations in accuracy caused by gravitational forces over time.

I keep putting my plastic Casio watch on there and I can really tell a difference in the way the LCD display hangs in the albedo offset. I think it has realigned the matrix of the liquid crystal lattice.

Review of the Orbita Tourbillon Watch Winder [WatchReport.com]

Buck, from Form-A-Funnel, writes about his product, which actually looks pretty great from the video:

"Form-A-Funnel" is a clever new invention that's utterly simple, yet truly useful. It's a formable, flexible shape that can be made into various types of funnels, drains, channels, or other shapes. It firmly holds its shape, and holds onto surrounding structures, which makes it great for working on machinery of all kinds.  Unlike conventional funnels, it's easy to clean and stores almost anywhere. It has hundreds of other uses, too, many of which can be seen on the manufacturer's website.

The coolest thing to me is how you can squeeze it around the outlets of ports coming out the sides of engines and it'll hold itself in place. Not revolutionary, but potentially useful at $25. I'd love to hear from someone who has one of these in their garage whether it's as handy as it appears to be or is all hype.

Product Page [Formafunnel.com]

• Camcorder – Flip F260 60 Minute Video Ultra Camcorder for $140 at Amazon. Or you could buy the wonderful Sanyo Xacti CG6 for just $200 and have a real camcorder that is just as easy to use. [Dealhack]

• External HDD – Western Digital MyBook 320GB 7200RPM drive with USB 2.0 or FireWire for $100, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Woot Off – Today's Woot! is a Woot Off! Let's see if the servers hold this time.

Despite mentions that t-shirts from the Experimental Gameplay Project (that cleverly included the games themselves on a bundled CD) were selling out in some Target locations, a developer whose work was featured has told Boing Boing Gadgets that Target will not be continuing to sell the products.

"We have recently found out that target isnt going to go forward with EGP," said our source. "We are going to try a few other places to see if we can get it picked up."

I asked why, since it appeared to be novel idea making a least a few sales to the gaming community.

"[EGP T-shirts] sold slightly less then what Target views as good enough to keep in store. But [the distributors] are going to try the line out at places like Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters in the coming months. We will see how it goes."

Hot Topic or Urban Outfitters do seem like better fits for the t-shirts and games, but part of what made the whole thing so exciting was to see indie games in such a mainstream outlet.

I have not contacted 2D Boy or the Experimental Gameplay Project to confirm this report as they have still not responded to my previous queries about the project in general.

A Cool Tools reader gives a rousing endorsement to "StrechCordz ," a simple belt with a rubber tether that makes it possible to swim endless laps without installing an expensive wave pool.

I wasn't sure I'd need the belt, frankly, since our pool is big enough for actual swimming. In practice, however, even though our pool is 32 feet long, it's not really enough to be comfortable for laps. The belt is an elegant solution. There's no more constantly calculating the strokes left till the next turn. Swimming in place allows a steady, relaxed rhythm that would otherwise be impossible. I find I can swim longer on the belt and get more of a workout. Our pool is 18 feet from side to side. The short belt (4 ft.) is plenty long enough for me, but there's a longer version for larger pools.

You can pick up a StrechCordz for around $30—far cheaper than other endless swim options. (Except for my technique, which is to start at the top of the open sea, then swim down.)

StrechCordz Short Resistance Training Belt [Cool Tools]

Numair Faraz, who worked as former Motorola CMO Geoffrey Frost's personal advisor, gave Engadget permission to run a letter he addressed to the Motorola senior staff and its stockholders, chiding the executive staff for its complete mismanagement of the company. It's a barn burner.

Many close to Geoffrey believed Ed Zander worked him to death, putting the pressure of the fate of the company in his hands. [That was certainly the buzz around the industry at the time. -Engadget Ed.] I took his untimely death in 2005 very hard, and knew that the company would head downhill in the aftermath. On a personal note, Lynne, his wife blamed the company for his passing. She committed suicide soon after.

...

As I told Zander in a phone call in 2007, I felt that he was setting the company up for massive failure. He had the audacity to say, "Well, maybe Geoffrey should have come up with a better successor to the RAZR," and told me to "Wait for big things in 2008." I guess he was right -- the golden parachute he got for his exit from the company was worth about 30 million dollars -- and that doesn't include his accumulated Motorola stock.

Today Motorola announced that the company will be split in two in an attempt to offload its once-profitable mobile phone division.

Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon [Engadget]

Ben Saunders is attempting to travel to the North Pole in record time, solo and unsupported by re-supply drops. He aims to complete the trek in less than 30 days.

He's posted his equipment list online, including the following gadgets, as well as tools like a Gargin E-trex and a Leatherman Skeletool. He's also taking a shotgun and ten cartridges for "bear safety."

• Spare GPS (exc batteries) Garmin eTrex
• Chart NOAA JNC5
• AA Cells Energizer Lithium AA 1.5v
• PDA HP iPAQ
• Argos satellite platform Telonics
• Iridium phone - battery Motorola 9505
• Digital Camera Nikon
• Video camera

Makes my little week in the woods trip seem much less daunting.

Equipment List [North.BenSaunders.com via Kottke]

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy, have developed thin-film solar cells capable of 19.9-percent efficiency, a new world record for flexible cells and approaching the 20.3-percent efficiency of silicon-based rigid cells. The copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) cells, the same sort of technology used by new solar companies like Nanosolar, will only reach this high rate of efficiency in the lab using expensive production processes. Commercial CIGS cells will be in the "12-15% range," according to Nanosolar. Every little bit helps over the lifetime of a panel, especially since the "printable" CIGS cells can provide costs as low as a buck a watt.

NREL Sets Thin Film Record [Renewable Energy World via Treehugger]

Today Modern Mechanix we look at a device that supposedly makes it safe to repair planes in flight. Looking at the photo above this scheme seems anything but safe. If you've ever been to a carnival and gotten the feeling that the the games were not just hard, but impossible to win, you were right. This 1930 article explains how they cheat. Also today we look at a 1936 Popular Mechanics round up of odd and wonderful musical instruments, a very cool looking table made entirely of little interlocking pieces, a doggie treadmill for owners that want their dogs to be fit, but are too lazy to walk them, and a couple of ultra-streamlined German cars.

Since about a thousand sponges are left inside patients who undergo surgery each year, SurgiCount is trying to sell this "Safety-Sponge System" which uses a 2D barcode system on each sponge and a handheld scanner to keep track of every sponge utilized. It's a great idea, but since it's likely the sponges would have to be purchased from SurgiCount, it's hard to say how much cost the system would add to a busy operating room.

Of course, it would only have to cost less than the malpractice payouts for those who find themselves with a rogue sponge inside their bodies, which often lead to infection or worse.

Company Page [SurgiCountMedical.com via Oh Gizmo via 7 Gadgets]

Designer Nobuhiko Arikawa has created a line of edible tableware for the Orto Cafe in Japan, baked from traditional sailor's hardtack—a simple dough of flour, water, and salt. The bowls and chopsticks are shelf-stable for several months as long as they are kept dry.

Edible tableware by Rice-Design [Dezeen]

Previously • Leaf Bowls of India [BBG]

Paul Robertson is a genius, as proven by his just-released opus, "Kings of Power 4 Billion %," a 16-bit animated reflection on the struggle between life and death in a world war between a strobing pantheon of gods, whipping ribbons of motile flesh, and ultra-kawaii heroes. Within its 12-or-so minutes roils enough creative juice and metaphorical subtext to fuel a battleship of master theses. Watch it now, or cast aside the secrets of the universe forever.

The version I downloaded from The Pirate Bay is pretty good quality, but it doesn't seem to be a pixel-for-pixel version. (Or perhaps the compression is smudging pixels.) I hope Robertson renders a higher quality version soon for addition to my permanent library.

Project announcement, with torrent and download sites [PRobertson.Livejournal.com via Roboskirts via Waxy]

A Japanese uniform manufacturer has created a mesh t-shirt from polyethylene fiber that they claim will protect wearers from knife attacks. And while that may certainly be true for slashing cuts, the rather large holes and flexible nature of the material means it won't do much for the quick jabs that form the bulk of my "Ice Pick Mongoose/Mandrake" fighting style, in which I induce a psychomotor seizure with a whiff of video head cleaner and then pull my own hair from its roots while emitting a paralyzing keen, filling both myself and my assailant with dozens of tiny punctures.* Unlike the full body armor (and ear muffs) that might protect a victim from such an attack, the t-shirt from Nihon Uni is machine-washable.

Prices will start at 19,000 yen for a short sleeved version up to 59,000 for a large, long-sleeved version.

New T-shirts offer protection against knives [Yomiuri.co.jp via Slashgear (Oh ho!) via Engadget]

* Keep in mind I am not a doctor.

In a move sure to please my mothers around the world, I will be working with the new Discovery offshoot Planet Green as a correspondent for an upcoming daily news show. I'll be covering "green" technology, from pure research projects, to companies using green tech to grow their businesses, to smart gadgets that improve our lives without being so wretched for the health of the planet. I'm pretty excited about it, although my first assignment is apparently drinking my own urine on camera, so it looks like I've both arrived and discovered a sure-fire way to scuttle a television career all at once.

This will definitely be a side project for me—one that I gave a lot of thought to before accepting. After consideration, I realized it'll actually end up providing even more opportunities to talk about green tech here on Boing Boing Gadgets, as I will have a double-barreled reason to go visit these companies, test out their products, and drink their urine.

Right now I'm assembling a list of products and companies to cover to pass up the chain. The network wants to shoot a few dozen 3-5 minute segments this year, which, you know, yikes. That's a lot of content! So while I doubt we'll be able to knock out that many there's no time to waste. If you've got a green tech product that you really like and would like to have highlighted, even as just a happy customer, speak up and I'll take a look.

So far I'm looking at several solar products (including some to be tested during my week in the woods), the Aptera electric car, rechargeable batteries, Nokia's "remade" prototype...pretty much all the stuff I've been excited about and written about here on BBG.

Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know so I could start casually dropping references to my "shoots" and "the time I was on television but you weren't." I don't think television is the path for me, but I think it'll be a lot of fun to play around with, especially with Discovery and Planet Green (and Treehugger!) who make a lot of television I enjoy. I promise to stick to my knitting as long as you guys remind me if and when I have my head up my own ass.

BuyMyTronics.com, the company that buys broken iPods, iPhones, and game consoles, has now added most cell phones to their line up.

BuyMyTronics.com just added Cell Phones to our growing list of items that we purchase broken and used. For example; we are able to pay up to $225 for a Broken iPhone and up to $220 for a Used Blackberry. We are still the only major company out there that actually pays for broken electronic gadgets, not to mention our prices for used items are typically the most out there. We now purchase Cell Phones, iPods, iPhones, Smart Phones, PDAs, Game Consoles and Zunes with laptops coming soon. Plus, we're proud to announce that BuyMyTronics.com is now 100% wind powered which has lowered our impact on the environment further.

Company Page [BuyMyTronics.com]

Previously • BuyMyTronics.com, Another Repair/Recycling Joint [BBG]

Update: Earth2Tech recently assembled a list of five sites, including BuyMyTronics, that accept gadgets for recycling.

An upcoming BBC documentary series by John Downer captures life in India's Pench National Park by use of hidden HD cameras, including this "tusk cam," a fairly unwieldy rig that is hung from an elephant's tusk. The crew also secreted cameras in rocks or logs able to be positioned by the trained elephants, allowing them to capture intimate shots of tigers, monkeys, and more.

The series "Tiger - Spy in the Jungle" will be shown on BBC One on March 30th and is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. I can't wait.

Trunk-cam reveals jungle secrets [BBC]
Smile you're on ele-vision: How a camera attached to an elephant's trunk captured amazing jungle views [Daily Mail]

[via Not Cot]

• Rechargeable Batteries – 8-Pack of Sanyo Eneloop 88 mAh pre-charged AAA batteries for $15 at Amazon. [Slickdeals]

• LCD HDTV – Refurbished Sharp AQUOS 52" 120Hz 1080p Widescreen LCD HDTV for $2,180, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Speaker – Polk Audio RTi12 Floorstanding Loudspeaker for $380, shipped. [Dealnews]

• Earbuds – Sennheiser CX55 Noise Canceling Earbuds for $36, shipepd. [Dealnews]

• Roomba – Today's Woot! is the iRobot Roomba 510 for $155, shipped.

It's true, people in the past were much spiffier dressers than we are. Would you put on your Sunday best just to burn up some unwanted weeds like this fellow? Today Modern Mechanix we also look at a flying saucer model that actually flies, a hood mounted signal for saying thank you to courteous motorists, concrete tepees you can rent, a tool for making dipped ice-cream bars, a little car made from an airplane drop tank, plus a lengthy and beautifully illustrated article about the ancient art of porcelain making.

Gearcrave wants you to live in the missile silo of your dreams, offering handy advice for turning that probably-not-radioactive dungeon into a comfortable place in which to store victims lured to a remote location via personal ads. Sure, it looks like a pleasant cottage when the rental car first crackles up the gravel path, but in the root cellar lies a portal to a dizzying cave of sexual torture and forced viewings of Red Dawn.

Is this the wrong place to mention how much I want to live in a missile silo? I would also take a hardened telecommunications bunker. No fatties.

How to Buy Your Own Missile Silo [Gearcrave.com via Danger Room]

Reader Philip has politely raised his polymer-clad index finger to make us aware of "Tippi Micro Gel Grips," ridged finger sleeves designed to make tedious office tasks like flipping through papers or counting out stacks of cocaine-sodden hundred dollar bills a breeze. The Micro Gel Grips are available in a variety of sizes and colors at Office Max, although I can't find the price. One can, however, pick up the traditional rubber finger tips at just 12 for a dollar.

Product Page [TippiBrand.com]